Cakemix.

So it was my best friend, Natalie's, birthday this month and when thinking of where to take her out, I thought, yeah we could go to a nice dinner and be ordinary OR we could do something that is fun that we both love. Now, Natalie and I love to bake and decorate and we often share recipes with each other, so I found this place, Duff's Cakemix in West Hollywood that let's people use their creativity and love of baking to decorate their own cakes!

Chef Duff is from the TV show Ace of Cakes and he is the owner of this cake making studio, so you know there were tons of cool and professional tools to use to decorate the cakes. He often tapes his show in the studio, in fact we missed him and tapings by one hour! You start with a pre-made cake...we chose their flavor of the month, pumpkin chocolate chip! Then we chose fondant as the topping in our favorite colors and used dye to make additional colors of fondant. Lastly, we added some toppings like edible glitter and candies. These are the cake and designs we created...a very happy birthday to Natalie! :)

Our starting cake.

Some designs we created.

Our final product!

Happy Birthday Natalie!

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

The other day, I was feeling like I hadn't baked anything in a long time so I decided to make my favorite dessert...cupcakes! Now, like many others, I am guilty of taking the shortcut at times and using boxed cake mix. However, I thought some aspects of the cupcakes should have my own twist to them so I added some mini Reese's cups to the bottom of the cupcake and I made my own peanut butter frosting.

Peanut Butter Frosting:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 5 tablespoons of unsalted butter at room temperature
• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup heavy cream

1. Mix confectioner's sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt on medium low speed until creamy.

2. Add the cream and mix on high speed until mixture is light and smooth.

(recipe courtesy of Ina Garten)